|
|
|
ATM Insight News
|
|
|
|
|
| |
ATM Insight news will be updated on a fortnightly basis, the next news brief will be on 3 rd December .
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
NATS plans carbon dioxide reductions
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
NATS is planning to cut by half the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by aircraft waiting to land at the UK’s busiest airports. According to NATS as much as 300,000 tonnes of CO2 could be saved by aircraft joining the arrival sequence earlier and slowing down their approach to London’s airports.
Using a new planning tool called Arrival Manager, developed by Barco and adapted by NATS, controllers can, potentially, cut in half the time aircraft spend in holding points over the London airports. Each year, 1.4 million aircraft fly through the London Terminal Manoeuvring Area. Operational staff will be able to view the aircraft sequence and make earlier decisions to ensure the best possible flow of air traffic from airport to airport.
NATS plans to reduce by, on average, ten per cent per flight the ATM CO2 emitted by aircraft under its control by 2020; set against a baseline of 2006 and has also pledged that its estate will be carbon-neutral by 2011.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kenya buys Selex radar
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
Kenya’s civil aviation authority has selected Selex Sistemi Integrati to supply primary and secondary radar, automation equipment, and navaids under a EUR25 million contract award. The new systems will be installed at the international airports of Nairobi and Mombassa, and national airports of Kisumu, Eldoret, Machacos, Poror and Wajir within 15 months.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
Vaisala restructures
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
Finnish weather specialist Vaisala has reorganized to reflect market sector growth. The company targets three business areas and ten market segments. The Meteorology division, headed by Martti Husu, serves national meteorological and hydrological institutes that provide national weather information and forecasts. Weather Critical Operations is headed by Antti Ritvos, and includes airports, roads, defense, and wind energy. The Controlled Environment division, headed by Kenneth Forss, covers industrial applications. There is also a group wide Products and Technology unit, headed by Jouni Rantanen, which combines all product creation and management activities into one common horizontal function, and a group wide Marketing function. Vaisala managing director Kjell Forsén predicts double-digit annual growth for the company.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
Czech plans national wide area multilateration system
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
Czech navigation service provider ANS CR is installing wide area multilateration in Brno, the country’s third major site to adopt the new surveillance technology. Era Systems Corporation is supplying surveillance coverage out to 80 nm from Brno airport, capable of tracking transponder signals and ADS-B transmissions. When linked with systems already deployed in Ostrava and Prague, the system will provide full nationwide coverage. “It is our full intention to interconnect all three wide area multilateration systems early in 2010 to create the world’s first nationwide wide area multilateration capability,” said Ivan Uhlir, ANS CR surveillance expert.
Meanwhile Era reports site acceptance of the multilateration system and terminal area ADS-B system at Cape Town International Airport. The Era system provides wide area surveillance within a 60 nm radius of the airport, and this data is fused with primary and secondary surveillance radar on Eurocat controller displays. The system will be used operationally once certification from the South African CAA has been obtained. Era is in the process of completing two surface surveillance systems for the South African navigation service provider ATNS – one at Cape Town International and one at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
Aerobahn tackles airport congestion
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
Sensis Corporation’s Aerobahn service is now operational at Newark Liberty International Airport. The service is being used by Continental Airlines to provide real-time situational awareness of aircraft taxiing, to more efficiently manage aircraft pushbacks and reduce taxi times at the carrier’s New York hub. Aerobahn service is currently being used by Continental at its Houston hub at Bush Intercontinental airport. The carrier also plans to use the service at its System Operations Coordination Center in Houston to improve efficiency of the overall airline network.
At Newark, Sensis Aerobahn Service integrates flight schedule and operational data with Sensis Multistatic Dependent Surveillance, a multilateration surveillance system, for a real-time, highly accurate picture of aircraft taxiing on the ground. Users access Aerobahn through a secure web browser and select from a set of tools which provide comprehensive insight into Continental’s airside operation.
Following the lead of major US airlines, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ) has chosen to use the Aerobahn Service at New York JFK, under a contract placed with the Aviation Development Council in early November. The service will provide airport stakeholders with greater awareness of aircraft traffic flow on the airport surface, including the gate areas, resulting in a reduction in delays and emissions and increased passenger satisfaction.
Sensis Aerobahn is also operational at airports in Europe and Asia. The Civil Aviation Department for Hong Kong International Airport Hong Kong is deploying the technology to improve safety and capacity on its busy airfield, where it is linking the system’s surveillance capabilities with airline operations.
Comment
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
Single European Sky – States slow progress to airline savings….
.......................................................................................................................................................................................................
The initial European response to the economic crisis has been completely State driven. Each national capital has been out there, announcing measures to save their banks and national jobs. Post facto, the Member States are only now starting to acknowledge that they might try to think of finding a job for The European Commission. For airlines that is bad news, very bad news.
It is bad news because that is also how the States seem to be behaving in relation to the new proposed Single European Sky (SES) package. It might be the start of a trend. You will recall that this is mark II of this proposal anyway, because the first attempt did not get traction. Attempt mark I was gentle, suggesting that the EU Member States might like to get together with their neighbours to form ‘functional airspace blocks (FABs)’. It was a very gentlemanly proposal, calling for honour on all sides – hence the need for mark II.
This is very worrying indeed. Whatever one thinks of the European Union, and Brussels and the creation of a federal super-state and so forth, in air transport, the work of the Commission, and the European experience, has been positive: for the airlines, for the passengers and for the regulators. If the States are going to row back from that, they might have chosen their timing better.
The Council has met several times on this issue in October, and draft working papers and compromises are starting to float around the corridors of power. At superficial first blush, the UK would appear to amongst be the biggest States holding out, but the UK assures that it is doing so only because it is not prepared to sign on to something that is less that acceptable, preferring no deal to a bad deal.
For the first time ever, too, the European Parliament committee has put forward a number of suggested changes that are consistently helpful. Credit should be given to Marian-Jean Mariniescu, from the centre-right party in Romania, who is the rapporteur on this dossier. So the big issue is to get the Member States on-board and in-line.
This is important. Not only will SES of itself make a significant contribution to the airlines’ emission reduction targets, by reducing flight times and distances, but SESAR depends on these changes being made too. If you are going to spend billions on the SESAR project, it seems perverse to pull the rug out from under the feet of the system. All of these changes being made. Says it right there, in fine print. SESAR is looking to almost halve the price of providing gate-to-gate ATM services (from €800 to €450 per flight) but only if the SES measures are in place.
The debate between Member States and the Federal centre is perhaps the defining political argument of Europe, but previously, generally, aviation has stood apart from that particular squabble. It would be very disappointing if that were to unravel now.
To receive the completed ATM-insight newsletter by e-mail every fortnight from the ATC-Insight team, click here & submit your details.
|
|
|
